I was in complete agreement until I got a car with a built in screen. At night I really do need it to be dark. Even dimming a white screen doesn't do the job. I use it almost exclusively via Android Auto, and in particular Google Maps. It's a Good Thing that it has a dark mode.

I dislike modes of any sort, but day and night are modes in the real world, and the device might as well accommodate that.

I would definitely be grateful to never again hear "When is X going to introduce dark mode?" for every single app and web site. Outside of that very specific instance where I'm required to have an app in my face while maintaining night vision, I'm perfectly happy to use "day mode" with the brightness adjusted.